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Woo hoo, first Top Ten Tuesday post of 2016 and better late then never, right? I recently started posting reviews again and am hoping to post 1 per week. I recently went from ‘undecided’ as my major to ‘pre-nursing’ so college is kicking my ass right now which is why my posts have kind of been few and far between this year. I really want to try to get at least 1 review posted a week though. I also want to do a Top Ten Tuesday every now and then and I really liked this week’s topic so here it goes…

There are obviously MANY more I could have included in this list. These are just some of my favorites that came to mind right away. I love love LOVE summer themed books so my Goodreads ‘Read’ list is filled with them.

Jenny Han is hands down my favorite YA author. I loved The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy and I loved her co-writing in the Burn for Burn trilogy. When I saw she had a new novel coming out, I couldn’t wait to start reading it.

*Funny story. I thought I was reading the full book on Pulse It, but to my surprise it turned out to only be an extended excerpt, so I was all frantic because I’m currently “banned” from buying any more books, so I had to rush to the library and get it because I was already so sucked into the story that I couldn’t wait.*

To All the Boy’s I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

(Summary from Goodreads)

I flew through this book in one day and that’s not because it’s a short book (which it isn’t short, 288 pages). It was just so amazingly good that I couldn’t put it down for anything. I got sucked into Lara Jean’s story and had to know what was going to happen next.

I loved Lara Jean, in a way because she reminded me of myself when I was in high school. She is shy and timid and doesn’t have a lot of self confidence. At one point in the novel (no worries, it’s not a spoiler) she says something about how she never wanted to be in a relationship before because it was so much more that just thinking about being with someone and how when you actually are with someone, they have needs, wants and feelings that you now have to be aware of. I always felt that way when I was younger and that’s often what made me shy away from serious relationships. As for Lara Jean’s sisters, eh…I really did not like Margot at all. She was constantly moody, yet wanted to place the blame on other people. Kitty I liked and she almost felt like my own little sister by the end of the book. I don’t want to go into much detail about the five guys who got the letters, but I did enjoy the three that we got to know in the story.

When those five boys got Lara Jean’s love letters, I knew right away how they got them and thought that part was pretty predictable, although it didn’t take anything away from the story. I also loved the “love triangle” I guess it could be called, that went on between two of the boys and Lara Jean, although I wasn’t always happy with the choices that were made. I keep wanting to say more, but I don’t want to give anything away. The easiest thing to say right now is that I basically loved everything about this book. I also love how there will be a sequel, P.S. I Still Love You, released in 2015 (anticipated in April of 2015), but I don’t know how I’m possibly going to wait until then to read it.

So I saw this survey on another blog and thought it would be something fun and different to do today and possibly every Sunday as well. I do have a review to post tomorrow and another for later this week. I will also be back to doing Top Ten Tuesday this week as well. I have also rented a ton of books from the library. (They let you rent up to 100 books at a time! I only rented 10 though.) So I am going through those pretty quickly because I have a few I bought that I want to read, as well as a long list of other books I’d like to rent. So today I’m going to be doing the A to Z Bookish Survey which was created by The Perpetual Page Turner, and it looked like a lot of fun so here are my answers 🙂

Author You’ve Read The Most From:

Sara Shepard (That should be a given, Pretty Little Liars alone is already up to 17 books, plus add in The Lying Game series.)

Best Sequel Ever:

It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

Currently Reading:

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Drink Of Choice While Reading:

Water, really that is all I ever drink besides some iced tea or Gatorade here and there

E-reader Or Physical Book?

Hands down physical books. I love the smell of a new book and just having it physically in my hands, but I also used the Kindle app and Bluefire Reader app on my iPad to read books from NetGalley and if a book I want to read is really cheap for the Kindle.

Learning about NetGalley. I had no idea that bloggers could get access to advanced copies to review and after I learned about NetGally, I have been able to access so many books.

Just Finished:

To All the Boy’s I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Kinds Of Books You Won’t Read:

Honestly, I am not into YA fantasy novels. I know Harry Potter and books with dragons and stuff are really popular, but I just never was able to get into it.

Longest Book You’ve Read:

Beach Blondes by Katherine Applegate (721 pages)

*Beat out The Year I Turned Sixteen by 1 page*

Major Book Hangover Because:

The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han (My favorite books if you haven’t been able to tell.)

Number Of Bookcases You Own:

Well I have one of those cubby shelves that has like six square sections and I have used up 4 of them for books (the other 2 have my dvds) and then I have 3 shelves on my wall, and I have officially run out of room so I now have a stack on my desk.

One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler – Seriously though, this book never gets old to reread.

Preferred Place To Read:

In bed or outside on my porch or deck if the weather is nice. (I’d love to add a hammock to my backyard though.)

Quote That Inspires You/Gives You All The Feels From A Book You’ve Read:

I’ll have to get back to this one. (Rushing now that dinner is ready…opps.)

Reading Regret:

Turning my nose up at The Hunger Games. I finally did read them after I watched the movie on Netflix just to see what the big deal was and of course I fell in love.

Series You Started And Need To Finish (all books are out in series):

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard – Literally the only series I need to finish. All the others I am reading, the books aren’t all out yet.

Three Of Your All Time Favorite Books:

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson, Ten by Gretchen McNeil, and To All the Boy’s I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Unapologetic Fangirl For:

Jenny Han, I love every single one of her YA books that she has written. I buy them as soon as they come out, or preorder them even, and have never been disappointed.

Very Excited For This Release More Than All Others:

This is tricky, I have a top three that are all equal with each other, 1.) P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han, the sequel to To All the Boy’s I’ve Loved Before (Anticipated release date is April 2016 so I’ve got a while to wait.) 2.) Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas, 3.) They All Fall Down by Roxanne St. Claire

Worst Bookish Habit:

I tend to let my TBR list get wayyyy out of control. As of now there’s close to 300 books on it, and that isn’t counting the written lists I have around my room. I tend to sometimes get so excited about the next book I’m planning on reading that I have to take a minute to calm down and focus on the one I’m in the middle of. (I wish I could read two books at once…)

X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book:

Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti

Your Latest Book Purchase:

17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen and The Night She Disappeared and The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die both by April Henry

ZZZ-snatcher Book (the last book that kept you up WAY late):

Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout – Such a good psychological thriller and mysterythat I couldn’t stop reading and put it down.

Wow…that took a lot longer than I originally anticipated. So like I said, I might do bookish surveys every Sunday just as a relaxed, fun posting day. I do have two reviews waiting to go up this week and will be participating in Top Ten Tuesday again as well, so be on the lookout for those posts.

Yay my first Top Ten Tuesday since I’ve been back! And this is definitely one of my favorite Top Ten Tuesdays as well because if you know me, you know I am a sucker for summery, beachy books. As always, Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is….

Top Ten Books That Should Be In Your Beach Bag or Ten Books That Will Be In My Beach Bag This Summer

(Warning I may exceed ten books and all books will have a beach or summer theme to them)

1.) The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han – Absolutely perfect books for the summer and beach and if you haven’t read any or all of them, add that on your summer bucket list and you can thank me later.

2.) Five Summers by Una LaMarche – I’m a sucker for a good summer camp story too and this one was soooo good. Seriously, put it in your beach bag!

3.) Rules of Summer by Joanna Philbin (and I’m definitely putting the sequel Since Last Summer in my own bag) – Once again just staying with the summer theme and when there’s a sequel it makes me happy because that means the story isn’t over yet.

4.) Nantucket Blue and Nantucket Red (although I have not read the sequel yet) by Leila Howard – Just like Rules of Summer, a great summer book and now has a sequel. Yay!

5.) Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson – All you Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour Fans, you really need to read her second book. Warning though, wear your sunglasses when reading because you may shed a tear…or many in my case.

6.) Any of Hailey Abbott’s books (My top choices are Boy Crazy, Flirting With Boys and Getting Lost With Boys) – All of her books are summer based and not too long so they are the perfect beach read.

7.) Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler – If you have never picked this book up I urge you to go and buy it and read it ASAP. It’s really good.

8.) Cruel Summer and Laguna Cove by Alyson Noel – Her books are also fairly short and both of these make good beach reads.

9.)Snapshot by Angie Stanton – Surprise another summer camp book, but this one is really good and it follows the characters after summer camp is over. It’s a companion to another one of her books as well.

10.) Lost Summer by Alex McAulay – This is a good beach read that is a bit of a thriller too. (Bonus if you’re staying in or have been to the Outer Banks because you’ll know the fictional references. Also it’s $18 new on Amazon. I bought mine for a penny used in good condition and paid $4 total with shipping.)

11.) Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas – I just finished this book and oh my god it was good. I finished it in two days because I couldn’t put it down and didn’t until I went to sleep. It’s a mystery and although it’s a little long it’s an easy read. *I’ll be posting a review after this post.*

12.) Moonglass by Jessi Kirby – Loved, loved, loved this book. It was short and sweet and takes place on the beach.

13.) The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks – Obviously this is a good beach read and the movie is pretty good as well.

14.) Things I Can’t Forget by Miranda Kenneally – Summer camp again but goes on after camp is done. Really really good. In fact I am buying it right now. (Rented from the library.)

15.) Sleepaway Girls and Summer State of Mind by Jen Calonita – Two great books that go hand in hand and make for perfect beach books.

So that is all of the books I can think of for now. They are all great books to bring on the beach and I will probably reread some of them while I am at the beach myself this summer.